It's about time. More than 50 percent of all cancer patients and survivors and more than 75 percent of those cancer patients in an advanced stage of cancer suffer unrelenting, sometimes debilitating, and always quality of life-limiting chronic pain. For various reasons, cancer patients and survivors are left on their own to find a solution to the pain that never leaves them. I have been fairly vocal about my position regarding chronic pain and the sheer and absolute lack of very many physicians in the medical community willing to do what they have the ability to do, but won't, when it comes to providing pain relief.

There are more issues to being alive than being alive if you cannot enjoy the life you are living because you are in some way profoundly diminished by pain. The American Cancer Society, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation have come together to form a coalition to provide funding of a three-year grant that allows the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center Pain & Policy Studies Group to evaluate federal and state laws, regulations and agency guidelines that can impact patient access for effective pain relief. With a keen interest in how well this evolves, I will keep you updated on the progress the group makes in changing the current and sad state of patient care in this country when it comes to pain management.